Source Records

from Vivienne Richards of Port Perry, Ontario

There are three entrees for Mr. Carder in the English census data, namely the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census lists (available on line). None of them give Carder a middle name or initial. All of them give his birth date as 1864, rather than 1863 that we are familiar with. However sometimes in the early data, there was confusion in the church records between the actual date of birth and the baptismal date.

The 1881 census lists Frederick Carder as aged 17 working as an Earthenware Potter. The 1891 census lists him as aged 27 working as a Drugist in Flint Glass Works (possibly an odd translation of chemist), and the 1901 census lists him as aged 37 with the profession of Glass Designer.

It is all interesting stuff, but what is most interesting is the glass Mr. Carder created and the legacy he left us.

Post 1932 Signatures
Friday’s Gazette had links to Steuben signatures since 1932.

for those who couldn’t open the links, Marshall Ketchum provides an alternative to view from

The two signature links in the Gazette are .doc files which only those who possess Microsoft Word will be able to open. It would have been better to convert them to .pdf files. Both of these are now on the website as .pdf files in the Signatures section.

Decade to Decade Signatures

Harry Morgan of Beverly, MA asks

Regarding the Steuben signatures, I’m sure that Ms. McKee is correct about the signature changing every 10 years or so, but after studying the signatures in the link provided by David I would be hard pressed to determine which decade a piece was made in based on the signature. Given that the signatures are individually scratched in (as opposed to a rubber stamp), there are going to be variations from piece to piece with just the same person signing them let alone different people. I certainly know my signature is not identical every time no matter how careful I am. Unfortunately I can foresee a situation where someone represents their post Carder Steuben as CA 1940 (for example) because “the signature looks just like the signature for that decade”. I do not know if the records exist, but one thing that “might” help is if there are details available as to the critical parts of the signature for each decade as there is for the 2008 example (2nd link). It is tantalizing to think of possibly dating post Carder Steuben by the signature but I think it is just one more area for additional research and details.

Would Like to Learn More about Signatures

MJ Madigan of Hastings on the Hudson, NY writes:

Hello, just wanted to very briefly weigh in and say that this issue is a prime concern for collectors. I could not open the Signature History link in this mailing, but succeeded in opening the New Steuben Signature link, which is signed by Jonathan Schottenstein and shows details of the signature used by the owners who closed Steuben down a couple of years ago. Is this also the “new” signature Marie was citing…the one Steuben will use going forward?

I was also surprised to hear that one could date all post-Carder Steuben by deliberately timed, periodic signature changes created by Steuben for this specific purpose. Would love to learn more about this.